


Theft Without Honor

by completelyhopeless



Series: Queen and Hawkheart [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Community: comment_fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-28 21:04:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2747030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/completelyhopeless/pseuds/completelyhopeless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Who was it, he had once asked, who stole my brother from me?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Theft Without Honor

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: _[Marvel Cinematic Universe, Clint Barton, whoever coined the phrase 'honor among thieves' obviously never knew any](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/571977.html?thread=80025161#t80025161)_
> 
> This sounded so much better in my head. It now feels disjointed and incoherent. I may have another headache coming on.

* * *

Someone told Hawkeye once that thieves operated with their own sense of honor.

  
Too much had come and gone between then and now for him to remember the specifics. He did not need them to know that the statement was not true. He knew of no thief with any kind of honor, not the ones who had died at his hands for their crimes, not the ones who had never been caught, and not the one he hated the most.

* * *

_Who was it, he had once asked, who stole my brother from me?_

* * *

Hawkeye could not remember when it started. He knew it had existed long before he was aware of it. When they were younger, their father was the tyrant, and his brother was the brave knight that stood fast against the dragon. He had never seemed scared, had not known pain. Hawkeye knew now that it was an illusion, that the pain was still there no matter the skill of the one who masked it. He had learned to hide his pain. His brother had just been faster at learning to conceal it than he was.

  
When he was younger, he had seen his brother as a hero. He had thought his rule would bring peace and all sorts of foolish things that he had outgrown fast enough when he took his place in the army.

* * *

_Was it war, then, that stole his childhood? His brother's?_

* * *

_Where had hope and heroes gone? How had they died without anyone knowing? How did bodies live on when the souls were gone?_

* * *

As a man, Hawkeye did not ask questions. He accepted orders, challenged decisions, but he did not question the things that could not be changed. His brother was once a friend. Now he was an enemy. The path to where they had come might not be clear, even in hindsight, but it could not be traveled in reverse. What had taken his brother from him was not some mystical force or even some shared fears. It was a man of flesh and blood, yes, but not their father.

  
His brother had done it to himself.

  
If he allowed himself time to think about it, he saw a pattern he did not like. Hawkeye sometimes thought the king had known what he was doing, that he'd allowed it to happen.

  
There was no honor in that.


End file.
